The Marin Energy Authority on Friday will celebrate initiation of service to its first customers, but it continues to vie with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for more customers.

With PG&E marketing heavily against it and the number of customers "opting out" running close to the maximum expected, the authority has increased the pool of customers it will appeal to during its initial marketing drive.

The authority began sending notices to 7,500 of Marin's biggest users of electricity in early February, and a second notice was sent to that group in March. Any of those customers who have not opted out by Friday will be automatically enrolled in the authority's Marin Clean Energy program the next time their electric meter is read.

They will receive two more opt-out notices in May and June.

The authority began sending notices to an additional 2,700 customers on April 10. The additional customers will help assure that the agency has sufficient operating revenue, officials said.

Dawn Weisz, the Marin Energy Authority's interim executive director, said on Monday that about 18 percent of the initial group of 7,500 had opted out. But that number is now in flux, because on Monday afternoon the California Public Utilities Commission ordered PG&E to immediately cease several aggressive methods of soliciting opt-outs.

Those methods include telephoning customers to ask them to opt out and then transferring the call that PG&E initiated to a PG&E customer service representative; obtaining an opt-out by using a form PG&E has included in a newspaper advertisement; visiting a customer's residence and asking the customer to provide an oral or written opt-out during the visit; and sending mailers that have the appearance of an official opt-out notice to Marin customers for the purpose of encouraging them to opt out of Marin Clean Energy.

"They're just relentlessly calling people and getting them to opt out at that moment on the phone," Weisz said.

She said many of the people who were called had no idea what the Marin Clean Energy program is, "and in many cases we're hearing from these customers that it was implied that they would not get electricity provided to them if they didn't opt out."

According to the 2002 state law that made community choice aggregation efforts such as Marin Clean Energy possible, electrical corporations are supposed to "cooperate fully" with such efforts.

The utilities commission said customers electing to opt out must do so only by the methods included in the customer notification provided by the Marin Energy Authority - by the customer calling a phone number or visiting a website. The PUC ordered PG&E to meet with its energy division to identify the specific customers who had opted out incorrectly and to inform those customers that their opt-outs were invalid. Weisz said she has no way of knowing how many that might be.

Marin Clean Energy's business plan assumed that a total of 20 percent of the phase one customers would opt out and that 20 percent of the remaining customers would choose to spend a little extra to get electricity from 100 percent renewable sources. So far, only 250 to 300 customers have signed up for this so-called "deep green" option, Weisz said.

Weisz said PG&E has largely ignored a previous PUC order that it market only to customers who have already been sent opt-out notices by the authority.

Katie Romans, a spokeswoman for PG&E, said the allegation is false. "We are only communicating with MEA's phase one customers at this time," Romans said.

Weisz said Marin Clean Energy representatives are calling some people who have opted out to make sure they understand the consequences of their decision.

Weisz said, "More than a handful of those we contacted didn't understand what they were doing and wanted to be part of the Marin Clean Energy program."

Connie Rodgers, president of the San Anselmo Chamber of Commerce, said she resented being called by Marin Clean Energy representatives after she opted out.

"This is strong-arming and brow-beating," Rodgers said. "My right to vote is being violated."

Weisz said, "It was certainly not a pressure call."

The PUC has asked PG&E to tell it how much it has spent so far marketing against Marin Clean Energy. PG&E has refused to supply the data, however, stating that the information is confidential, said PUC spokesman Christopher Chow. An organization calling itself the Common Sense Coalition, which is funded and overseen by PG&E, has sent numerous mailers attacking Marin Clean Energy to residents throughout the county.

The authority's decision to add more customers to its first implementation phase has caused some people to ask, "Is the Marin Energy Authority in trouble?" said Alexander Bischoff, director of Marin Green Leadership, a nonprofit created in February to help the Marin Energy Authority make its case to the public.

Bischoff said for the authority to be successful in its first phase it needs to attract a sufficient number of customers to do two things: pay for the electricity that it has contracted for from Shell Energy North America and cover Marin Clean Energy's operating expenses.

Bischoff said the authority is in no danger of falling short on either score because it can always add more customers to this first phase.